https://www.theplayerstribune.com/k...n=RSS&kwp_0=528170&kwp_4=1909302&kwp_1=803250
I agree with him. Well said Karl
I agree with him. Well said Karl
KAT on social justice
- Thread starter Chino1176
- Start date
Saw this a while back. It's a really well written piece. Towns is definitely one of the best ambassadors of our program and I'm glad to see him voice his opinion and share his personal thoughts and insight. He has a platform and he's using it correctly.
No reason to eat him. He’s got an opinion and actually I appreciate him doing what no other athlete has done as far as I can tell. He expressed it in an articulate manner and made his point without the disrespect.
He’s wrong on an awful lot in that and I could spend a long time explaining why, what he’s ignoring, and the parts that have been fabricated news, but I won’t. He’s a rich guy that lives in an echo chamber. Just the way it is.
He’s wrong on an awful lot in that and I could spend a long time explaining why, what he’s ignoring, and the parts that have been fabricated news, but I won’t. He’s a rich guy that lives in an echo chamber. Just the way it is.
Personally I don’t want to hear political talk from athletes any more than I want to watch my congressman shoot hoops
When our president is a reality TV show host that tweets about the NFL a dozen times a week, that genie is already out of the bottle. The line between them is long gone.
He is turning into a social justice warrior. Don't give a crap about his opinion because it is mostly wrong. Liberalism is the biggest problem affecting this country. Not racism.
Someone posted the video of him in that Katy Perry video a while back. I called KAT a cucked out SJW, halfway kidding. Someone replied to my one liner with four full paragraphs and finished it by accusing me of being triggered.
This is our reality now. Welcome to hell.
This is our reality now. Welcome to hell.
My point remains. It may exist but I don’t have to read about it. No interest. It’s a shame that our youth get influenced by celebrity opinions.
To be fair, Trump didn’t start the injection of politics into sports. That started with ESPN turning their network into a propaganda wing for one ideology. Everything has become inflected and many reactions have taken place based off of that.
It's trendy now to blame everything on racism.
Karl has a right to his opinion and he's a Kentucky Wildcat for life. That's all I have to say about that.
I don't think liberalism is the biggest problem affecting this country.
To me the biggest problem is a lack of empathy and a general unwillingness of people to see situations that are outside of their own perspective as anything relevant to their lives.
It's come to be about me, me, me. My people, my beliefs, my political side. In a just society everybody should pull everyone else up. Instead we have this combative thing where people have formed teams. Even mundane, everyday issues have become Us vs. Them.
I don't agree with everything in Towns' article but I'm willing to try and understand where he might be coming from. It takes a suspension of my own ego as a 40-year-old white man. That's hard to do. In the inverse, a lot of these athletes refuse to see where the other side is coming from when they talk about the flag or the role of police or whatever. So the athletes and their surrogates are not totally blameless either.
To me the biggest problem is a lack of empathy and a general unwillingness of people to see situations that are outside of their own perspective as anything relevant to their lives.
It's come to be about me, me, me. My people, my beliefs, my political side. In a just society everybody should pull everyone else up. Instead we have this combative thing where people have formed teams. Even mundane, everyday issues have become Us vs. Them.
I don't agree with everything in Towns' article but I'm willing to try and understand where he might be coming from. It takes a suspension of my own ego as a 40-year-old white man. That's hard to do. In the inverse, a lot of these athletes refuse to see where the other side is coming from when they talk about the flag or the role of police or whatever. So the athletes and their surrogates are not totally blameless either.
Why? They get influenced by awful political ads and terrible parents and all kinds of other things too. If what Karl Towns says changes a kid's paradigm, he was already doomed. You don't stop being a person or an American because you're famous.
Also, Karl Towns *is* our youth. He has every right to use his platform just like anyone else does. He's smart, he's a good person, and he communicates his message well. We could use a whole lot more of him on both sides of these debates.
Good post, but it's not what the shouty man in the talking box said so it'll mostly fall on deaf ears.
Sports used to be a unifier, where you could put aside your political differences and just cheer for the team. That concept is being destroyed, sadly because one end of the political spectrum that controls most of the media derives their political power from anger and division. Don't think any of this is by accident.
Somewhat agree.
But where I won’t go is to suspend facts from fiction as a means to peddle in soft bigotry because I’m afraid of the truth offending an opposite skin tone.
Example: A lot of African Americans start disadvantaged and there are several extremely complex reasons for it. Systematic state Oppression is not one. And that’s not an opinion.
Sports has always been threaded through with political issues.
From Curt Flood to Jesse Owens to Arthur Ashe to Billie Jean King--there have always been these little moments that sports has magnified.
It makes sense that African American issues would come up in sports, particularly the sports of basketball and football. A lot of black participants, black coaches, black owners, black commentators. In many ways discussions of race need to happen in sports because sports is a lot of times the only place Americans spend thinking about the young black experience.
We're enclaved a lot of times in America around people who look just like us. It's good to get a fresh perspective from time to time, even if it's hard to hear.
Please do not call them African Americans. They don’t give a damn about Africa.
Sure there were pockets of politics. But nothing close to what we see now. Even though it's clear that most people don't want to hear anymore about kneeling, it's front and center every day in the media for weeks now. The media will not LET it drop, because it's an agenda. It's designed to keep people angry, so that they can be pandered to and promised solutions that NEVER materialize.
My point is some young kids tend to automatically agree with their sports heroes opinions because they look up to them. Makes parenting more challenging. By youth I mean teens and younger. Not grown men like Karl who already have their ideology inbedded
Nope. Just pointing out where you remembered something incorrectly and tried to state it as a fact. I'm sure this is the only time that's happened, though.
![[roll]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/roll.r191677.gif "roll [roll]")
Karl A Towns has his opinion and a forum to express it - as a representative of the NBA. My concern is that a venue that used to be exclusively devoted to the promotion and communication of sporting events and the athletes that participated in these events, is now a vehicle for sociopolitical change. This does not appear to be accidental. I can appreciate drawing attention to critical issues, i.e. police brutality, because it certainly does exist - all humans are flawed and therefore, make mistakes. But, using a platform that people typically watch to "escape from all of the turmoil of their lives" as a means towards getting out a specific message about the issue may or may not be the best way to confront what is going on with police who have shot others, black and white, while not following proper protocols or being in compliance with the laws.
How about starting a foundation that targets training for police officers, especially, those in high crime areas that are being confronted with continual threats daily? What about recruiting volunteers to walk these neighborhoods and find out what the occupants of these neighborhoods need to fight the gangs, the drug pushers, the level of violent crimes that are creating an atmosphere of fear and denial? What about calling out those cities that are experiencing high incidences of police brutality and murder rates that are on an epidemic scale to begin to address these issues within the governmental and community context - do they need more patrols, do they need more community resources or support, do they need more effective educational structures that will assist children and families to make wiser choices and help them have a variety of options that will cause them to avoid the lure of the street?
There are reasoned approaches to every problem. We have lost the ability to properly think through solutions and to make sure we are looking at all sides of an issue. To me, protesting the national anthem has become almost a fad and the "cause of the month" which only serves to diminish the importance of the argument. jmo
How about starting a foundation that targets training for police officers, especially, those in high crime areas that are being confronted with continual threats daily? What about recruiting volunteers to walk these neighborhoods and find out what the occupants of these neighborhoods need to fight the gangs, the drug pushers, the level of violent crimes that are creating an atmosphere of fear and denial? What about calling out those cities that are experiencing high incidences of police brutality and murder rates that are on an epidemic scale to begin to address these issues within the governmental and community context - do they need more patrols, do they need more community resources or support, do they need more effective educational structures that will assist children and families to make wiser choices and help them have a variety of options that will cause them to avoid the lure of the street?
There are reasoned approaches to every problem. We have lost the ability to properly think through solutions and to make sure we are looking at all sides of an issue. To me, protesting the national anthem has become almost a fad and the "cause of the month" which only serves to diminish the importance of the argument. jmo
We all know the media sensationalizes stuff. But it is also true that these protests are going on. And they are important to people. I have black relatives and it was surprising to me that they feel much the same way as a lot of these athletes.
Again: I don't totally agree. But I want to understand.
I wouldn't tell anyone that they shouldn't be angry about these protests. But it must be said that some people get "angry" over very small things these days. Both left and right.
We've become extremely sensitive to stuff that we perceive as even tangentially political. An example: back when UK took the telephone call from Obama. You could go to Cal's Facebook page in those days and you would've thought the world was going to burn down. "I'll never follow this team again" and "How could you do this to us Cal" and so on.
That's hellaciously defensive to the point of derangement.
I have no issue with KAT speaking his mind. He has the right.
What I have issue with is some of his thinking that not only he thinks this way, but many others.
I have no idea about any white supremacist groups or what they do, but from what I can see, BLM is a Black supremacist group itself and that seems to be OK with folks.
Why do people like KAT always want to bring up isolated instances where a white man is involved in a shooting of a Black man but sit back and say nothing about all the Black on Black shootings that occur everyday in cities all over the country.
If a white man has said the things the Black lady from ESPN said, they would have handled it much differently. I can go on and on. Why it is OK for all the double standards?
If KAT really wanted to make a statement, why not address the issue of Blacks complaining that any tax cut will hurt Blacks due to more Blacks with children in single family homes than whites? Why not get out in the communities and talk to these young kids about drugs, guns, sex, education? Not just KAT but all these athletes who are using sports to "stand against social injustice" as they say.
A lot of things happened in the 60's that were wrong and not one of those exist today. Not one.
Police officers are not given the respect they deserve and have earned.
Slick Rick is a slime ball for all his dirty dealings as a coach, does that make Cal one too since he is a coach?
I bet KAT never encountered one white supremacist while playing for UK. Bet he never saw anything but respect and kindness from all the people he encountered while at UK.
Racism is not everywhere as some say it is.
What I have issue with is some of his thinking that not only he thinks this way, but many others.
I have no idea about any white supremacist groups or what they do, but from what I can see, BLM is a Black supremacist group itself and that seems to be OK with folks.
Why do people like KAT always want to bring up isolated instances where a white man is involved in a shooting of a Black man but sit back and say nothing about all the Black on Black shootings that occur everyday in cities all over the country.
If a white man has said the things the Black lady from ESPN said, they would have handled it much differently. I can go on and on. Why it is OK for all the double standards?
If KAT really wanted to make a statement, why not address the issue of Blacks complaining that any tax cut will hurt Blacks due to more Blacks with children in single family homes than whites? Why not get out in the communities and talk to these young kids about drugs, guns, sex, education? Not just KAT but all these athletes who are using sports to "stand against social injustice" as they say.
A lot of things happened in the 60's that were wrong and not one of those exist today. Not one.
Police officers are not given the respect they deserve and have earned.
Slick Rick is a slime ball for all his dirty dealings as a coach, does that make Cal one too since he is a coach?
I bet KAT never encountered one white supremacist while playing for UK. Bet he never saw anything but respect and kindness from all the people he encountered while at UK.
Racism is not everywhere as some say it is.
I’ll just say this one thing.
Yes, there are terrible parents and environments children unfortunately become predisposed to. And what do those kids do to fill that void? Today, it’s their phone, music, entertainment etc. A child will find a role model somewhere. Good or bad.
I’d also say Karl is not our youth. He’s a multi millionaire who lives inside of an extremely liberal echo chamber. And once again, he decided to pass on the more difficult conversation that is a biblical nightmare for most of his perceived community. And that’s a shame, because it follows a POLITICAL means and not geared toward the bigger issues - like the abortion rate, murder rate, drug abuse statistics, and the biggest problem blacks (and whites) face today, the breakdown of the traditional family.
I do appreciate the way he articulated himself. Most of these athletes didn’t even try, they just jumped on the cause.
Everyone knows deep down why the real conversation won’t happen. A large amount of people today do not want to be held accountable, and the answers for success demand accountability.
What Towns said is easy. The more important conversation is much harder.
But you're cool with a reality tv star doing the same thing on top of being our country's leader?
Didnt read the link, if he does things ( whether I agree politically or not ) on his time and uses his fame outside company time its his right. I'm just exhausted from athletes / singers/ anchors , etc and etc taking on the role on social justice warrior or PETA warrior or Protector of marriage warrior or any other pet project . Sports is entertainment , NOT POLITICS !
Thats about as deep an opinion as saying Reagan was nothing more than actor . Blast trump if you want , there is plenty of ammo, but bring something deeper than he was once on TV .
Well I have to say if someone stopped following the Cats over that phone call, then that's on them. It's a different animal though, than what I'd call manufactured outrage that we see now. Does police brutality exist? Sure. Is it the biggest problem facing minority communities? Not even close. The larger problems aren't addressed because they aren't racially charged and don't provide any political traction. Worse yet, they might actually SOLVE some problems, and put the outrage industry out of business.
This whole thing is disgusting. We've got the extreme right and the extreme left committing acts of violence, hate speech, facism, and even terrorism. I would argue that both groups are very vocal minorities of our country, but that doesn't diminish the damage they're causing.
We have to stop viewing each other by the color of our skin. the color of one's skin makes up, approximately, the same percentage of one's gentletic makeup as their eye color. So, basically nothing.
Don't hate people for the color of their skin. There are plenty of reasons not to like someone without devolving to that.
Stop viewing this as white vs black, gay vs straight, etc. what's going on right now is American on American crime. And with all the people that don't like us across the globe I would think we have enough to deal with without going after each other.
We have to stop viewing each other by the color of our skin. the color of one's skin makes up, approximately, the same percentage of one's gentletic makeup as their eye color. So, basically nothing.
Don't hate people for the color of their skin. There are plenty of reasons not to like someone without devolving to that.
Stop viewing this as white vs black, gay vs straight, etc. what's going on right now is American on American crime. And with all the people that don't like us across the globe I would think we have enough to deal with without going after each other.
I would say it's as deep as saying someone's opinion doesn't matter because they're in the NBA... hypocrite
